Parenting: the 9-letter word that nobody is an expert at. Sometimes our main goal is to just keep our kids alive. For those of you who are ready to stretch your goals and reach for the stars, here are 5 tips to raise independent, self-sufficient children.
1. Let Your Kids Fail
Babying our children is a disservice to them in the long-run. As parents, it’s important to let our kids complete tasks on their own and learn to get back up after falling. Teach your children that it’s OK to fail because failing is a necessary part of growing. Every successful person has failed, usually several times. IF your kids have the necessary skills and supplies, as well as the ability, let them do their school projects on their own. It will do them good. Sheri Noga, the author of Have Guts to Do It Right: Raising Grateful and Responsible Children in an Era of Indulgence, says that parents typically know what their children are capable of but step in to make things easier for them. It may be hard to think in terms on ‘now’ instead of looking at the big picture but we recommend resisting the urge to always do everything for your children.
2. Teach Them To Love Reading
Children who read, excel academically, have a more intelligent vocabulary and grow up to be more creative and imaginative than kids who don’t read regularly. Encouraging our kids to read can be easy and extremely beneficial. Teach them from a young age and they will most likely grow up having a love for reading and writing.
3. Teach Your Children To Serve Others
It’s important to teach our children to be selfless and put others first. This helps curb entitlement and leads to humility. We recommend encouraging acts of kindness on a daily basis to make it a normal part of their life, instead of only exposing them to an annual gran gesture such as taking them to a soup kitchen around the holidays.
4. Avoid Paying Your Kids To Do Chores
When we bribe our kids to do things, we give them an unhealthy expectation and sense of entitlement. They might grow up thinking they deserve a reward for everything they do in life.
5. Stick To A Bedtime Schedule
A study published in 2013 in the journal Pediatrics found that seven-year-olds who had irregular bedtimes had more behavioral problems than did those with consistent bedtimes. Children need structure and consistency. Setting a bedtime and making your children stick to it will teach them to follow a schedule.
When making parenting decisions, think of what will be best in the long-run.